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July 23, 2009

Book program seeks to improve literacy skills, may come to Murray

Mark Millican

CHATSWORTH — Imagine placing one children’s book every month into the hands of every child in a county from birth through age five.

That audacious goal was presented to members of the Rotary Club of Chatsworth-Murray County on Thursday by a speaker who’s partially responsible for it being halfway completed in Catoosa County.

“It develops literacy skills, pre-learning (before school), and helps children with communication and language,” said Phil Ledbetter of the program called Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy. Ledbetter is the coordinator of the Catoosa Family Collaborative. He said Robin Ferst of Madison, Ga. modeled the program after Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Sevierville, Tenn., with modifications.

“She didn’t want to do it just for low-income kids, but all kids,” he said of Ferst. “A book comes in the mail every month to a child with their name on it, and when they get to age 3 or 4 they get really excited about that, even if they can’t read. They take the book to their parent and hopefully they’ll read to their child.”

In Catoosa, the program grew from 10 children in June of 2004 to 849 kids in December of that year. Currently around 2,000 children are served by the program, which is approximately 50 percent of those under 5 in the county, said Ledbetter, a retired elementary school principal.

Supporters are asked to donate $37 per year, or $185 for five years, to enable one child to receive the books. Ledbetter, who received a Volunteer of the Year award from United Way of Greater Chattanooga for his fundraising work with the program, said United Way has helped the Catoosa effort and pleas for donations have also been made in the community.

The first book a child receives is “The Little Engine That Could,” Ledbetter explained, and then the last book they receive before beginning school is “Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten.”

Club member Gail Stanley said she was “quite impressed” that people cared enough to implement the program in Catoosa.

“I think children need exposure to books they don’t normally have in the home,” she said. “My parents read to me growing up and I think it helped.”

“We have a number of members who are very excited about the possibility of working to bring the Ferst Foundation program to Murray County,” said Gary Tanner, club president. “We’ll do the legwork to see what it takes to make it happen. Local children can really benefit from this program.”

An ongoing emphasis in Rotary International is literacy in local communities and worldwide, according to the organization’s Web site (www.rotary.org).

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